Report: Florida imposed seven new death sentences in 2024, most in the nation

By Christine Sexton

An annual report put together by a national group that tracks the death penalty says Florida led the nation this year in imposing death sentences, a situation that appears to be linked to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ successful push to eliminate the requirement of a unanimous jury recommendation.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a group that says it has no position on the death penalty but is critical of how it carried out, reported that 26 people were sentenced to death in the United States in 2024. 

Ten states sentenced people to death this year but just four — Alabama, California, Florida, and Texas — accounted for the majority. Florida led with seven death sentences, followed by six in Texas, four in Alabama, and three in California.

About one-third of the 26 new death sentences were imposed without a unanimous recommendation from a jury, including six in Florida and three in Alabama.

Syria Is Free, Say Media—But That Shouldn’t Mean Free of US Occupation

 By Gregory Shupak 

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  Since the overthrow of the Syrian government, corporate media analysts have offered advice as to how the US should approach Syria going forward. These observers consistently opted not to call on the US and Israel to end their occupations of and violence toward Syria.

The Washington Post (12/8/24) calls for “engaged diplomacy” from the incoming Trump administration to “help write a brighter next chapter for this strategically located, and long-suffering, country.”

A Washington Post editorial (12/8/24), headlined “Why the US Needs to Help Build a New Syria,” said:

Syria might seem far removed from US interests. Before Mr. Assad’s fall, President-elect Donald Trump posted: “DO NOT GET INVOLVED!” But America is involved. Some 900 US troops and an undisclosed number of military contractors are operating in northeastern Syria near Iraq, battling the Islamic State and backing Kurdish forces fighting the Assad regime.

Teamsters Union Launches 'Largest Strike Against Amazon in US History'

 By Jake Johnson and Eloise Goldsmith

"We are fighting against a vicious union-busting campaign, and we are going to win," said one Amazon warehouse worker.

The Teamsters launched what the union described as "the largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history" on Thursday morning to protest the e-commerce behemoth's unlawful refusal to bargain with organized drivers and warehouse workers across the country.

Workers in New York City, Atlanta, San Francisco, and other locations are expected to participate in Thursday's strike, with more facilities prepared to join if Amazon's management doesn't agree to negotiate contracts with unionized employees.

The union said Wednesday that Teamsters locals are also "putting up primary picket lines at hundreds of Amazon Fulfillment Centers nationwide."

Ohio Senate bill would automatically close low-performing public schools

 By Megan Henry

A Republican bill in the state Senate would automatically shut down low-performing Ohio public schools. 

State Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, introduced Senate Bill 295 over the summer, which would revise the state’s automatic school closure language. The bill has a fourth hearing scheduled Tuesday in the Senate Education Committee. 

Democrats' Working-Class Failures, Analysis Finds, Are 'Why Trump Beat Harris'

 By Jessica Corbett

"By branding itself as an active party of economic populism that fights for needed changes for the working class, the Democratic Party can put itself in a position to regain the support of the voters it lost in 2024."

Further bolstering the post-election argument that U.S. working-class voters have ditched the Democratic Party because they feel abandoned by Democrats, a Tuesday analysis details why Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Republican President-elect Donald Trump.

The report by Data for Progress, a left-leaning think tank, uses dozens of national surveys of likely voters conducted throughout 2024 to back up assertions that the party needs to improve its messaging and policies targeting working people if Democrats want to win future U.S. elections, after losing the White House and both chambers of Congress last month.

Data for Progress found that before Democratic President Joe Biden passed the torch to Harris this summer following a disastrous debate performance against Trump, "voters were highly concerned about his age, and swing voters overwhelmingly cited it as the main reason they wouldn't vote for Biden."

"Voters were also deeply unsatisfied with Biden's economy," the 40-page report states. "A strong majority perceived the economy as getting worse for people like them, with more than 3 in 4 consistently reporting they were paying more for groceries. Voters blamed Biden more than any other person or group for U.S. economic conditions."

"While voters across party lines strongly supported Biden's populist economic policies, many were not aware that his administration had enacted them," the document details. "When Harris entered the race, her favorability surged, along with Democrats' and Independents' enthusiasm for voting in the election."

However, "on the economy—voters' top issue—Harris struggled to escape Biden's legacy. Half of voters said that Harris would mostly continue the same policies as Biden, leading swing state voters to prefer Trump on handling inflation," Data for Progress explained. This, despite warnings from economic justice advocates and Nobel Prize-winning economists that Harris' plan for the economy was "vastly superior" to the Trump agenda.

"Harris was effective at communicating to voters that she supported increasing taxes on billionaires, but struggled to break through with other aspects of her popular economic agenda," the think tank noted. "Most voters heard only 'a little' or 'nothing at all' about her plans to crack down on corporate price gouging, protect Social Security and Medicare, and lower the price of groceries, prescription drugs, and childcare."

The report on "why Trump beat Harris" also highlights that "beyond the economy, Democrats struggled mightily on immigration and foreign policy, with a surge of border crossings at the end of 2023 and major international conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine damaging trust in Biden and Harris on these issues."

"While Democrats had some success breaking through on their stronger issues—abortion and democracy—they struggled with these issues being less important to voters, and with the fact that many voters were unsure of Trump's support for Project 2025," the document adds, referencing the Heritage Foundation-led playbook crafted for the next Republican president.

Although billionaire- backed Trump is a well-documented liar expected to now implement a series of right-wing Project 2025 policies, the former reality television star has demonstrated an ability to capture attention via traditional press and newer media, launching his Truth Social platform, appearing on various podcasts, and reportedly taking advice from his 18-year-old son about reaching young people.

Data for Progress observed that "while Harris held an advantage with voters who regularly consume political news, those who consume little or no political news—a group that disproportionately consumes content on social media—supported Harris at much lower rates."

As the think tank concluded:

Broadly, these findings indicate that the Democratic Party needs to do far more work to break through to voters—particularly those who are politically disengaged—on the economy. Democrats' economically populist agenda is overwhelmingly popular, but they need to more clearly communicate it to voters and engage in more robust communications. Earlier this year, President Biden declined the traditional pre-Super Bowl interview for the second year in a row, when 123 million Americans tuned in—the most-watched Super Bowl in history. In fact, Biden will leave office having done the fewest number of press conferences among recent presidents. Even when Harris took over the top of the ticket in July, she waited weeks before doing her first major broadcast interview in late August. Democrats need to do the basics of actively communicating their agenda to the American people, including through non-traditional media to reach disengaged voters. Voters crave authenticity and engagement, which they found in Trump.

Democrats also need to more actively demonstrate to voters that they are the party of change. They need to show voters that they are capable of fixing our country's immigration system and foreign conflicts by taking a serious but humane approach to border security and supporting popular solutions to conflicts abroad.

"By branding itself as an active party of economic populism that fights for needed changes for the working class," the group stressed, "the Democratic Party can put itself in a position to regain the support of the voters it lost in 2024."

Echoing that conclusion in a Tuesday statement, Data for Progress executive director Danielle Deiseroth declared that "this report should serve as a clarion call to Democrats who let a billionaire con man outflank them on cost-of-living issues."

"Voters are tired of the status quo, one in which the ultrarich and largest corporations rake in record profits while working families struggle to afford groceries," she said. "If Democrats want to take back Congress, they need to recruit candidates who can buck the unpopular establishment and authentically communicate to the communities they seek to represent."

Progressives in Congress—such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020; "Squad" members like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.); and Congressional Progressive Caucus leaders, including outgoing Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and incoming Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas)—have long made that same point, but they have been particularly vocal about it after the devastating federal electoral losses in November.

On Tuesday, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) narrowly defeated Ocasio-Cortez to lead Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee in the next congressional session—a contest that was widely seen as a proxy fight between the party's younger, more progressive faction and the establishment that couldn't win over voters last month.

California’s jail population will rise thanks to Prop. 36. So will inmate deaths, advocates say

By Nigel Duara

In summary

California recorded historically high numbers of deaths in county jails for the past six years. Now, counties expect to house more prisoners as Prop. 36 takes effect.

According to Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes, California doesn’t have a crisis in its jails, where record numbers of people have died even as the state’s jail population shrank. 

“Saying people died in jails is a little bit of a misnomer,” said Barnes, who is also the president of the California State Sheriffs’ Association. “People who are dying in our care, and I can’t say this any other way, they’re not dying because they’re in jail. They are dying from things that are life choices, narcotics issues, poor health, cancer, other things. 

Appeals court turns down ACLU’s request to interview SC inmates

 By Skylar Laird

COLUMBIA — The state’s prison system does not have to allow interviews with inmates, a federal appeals court decided, echoing a decision from a lower court.

Three federal judges dismissed a lawsuit by the state’s American Civil Liberties Union, upholding a Department of Corrections policy prohibiting in-person and phone interviews with inmates.

The Faircloth Amendment Blocks the Construction of Affordable Housing: It Should be Repealed

 By Algernon Austin & Jordan Billngs

Randall Irvin has been waiting for public housing in Chicago for six years, and his situation is not that unusual. For example, there are over 100,000 families on San Antonio’s waitlist for public housing. In Chicago, there were more than 200,000 families on the waitlist in 2023. Public housing waiting lists are extremely long because there is an inadequate supply – and a 1998 amendment to federal housing law is a significant barrier to building new housing.

Murdoch Outlets and Bezos’ WaPo Demand More Sympathy for Health Insurance Execs

By Ari Paul

The early morning murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was met on social media with a “torrent of hate” for health insurance executives (New York Times, 12/5/24). Memes mocking the insurance companies and their callous disregard for human life abound on various platforms (AFP, 12/6/24).

Internet users are declaring that the man police believe to be the shooter, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, is certifiably hot (Rolling Stone, 12/9/24; KFOX, 12/10/24). A lookalike contest for the shooter was held in lower Manhattan (New York Times, 12/7/24).

‘Don’t have the votes to stop anything’: No plan yet to tackle Jackson water next session

By Alex Rozier

Jackson lawmakers are discussing the future of the city’s water system among other focuses for the next legislative session, but it’s unclear what they might propose, if anything, to counter recent attempts at a state takeover. 

State legislators told Mississippi Today late last month that there wasn’t a plan to tackle the water system’s future, but were planning to meet with Jackson officials this month.